Earn more by lowering your pitch? [Article]

Yes – but only if you are a male, discovers Martin Gardiner of Improbable Research, in this research paper –

“For the median CEO of the median sample firm, an interquartile decrease in voice pitch (22.1Hz) is associated with a $440 million increase in the size of the firm managed, and in turn, $187 thousand more in annual compensation.” 

Patenting flying saucers [Article]

Thinking of patenting that flying saucer that you invented in your garage? Well, you surely can’t do it in Russia – it’s already been patented at the The Federal Service for Intellectual Property in Russia, a.k.a. Rospatent

“The claimed invention is directed to solve the technical problem of creating an aerospace aircraft to ensure the continuation of research in the near and far space, using interplanetary space stations (hereinafter – MKS).”

Flowers & Soup – A short story

There was an old man who went every day to the same café in a small town to have soup for lunch. 
He said it was the very finest soup he had ever eaten, and it had increased his life expectancy. 
When the old man finally died, there was a funeral with the usual elaborate gifts of flowers from his friends.

The man who ran the café, however, brought a huge pot of soup. “How can you insult the dead in this way?” asked the mourners. “Well,” said the cook, “he is as likely to taste the soup as he is to smell your flowers, and, besides, you all can take home some of the soup in his honor and eat it. 
Perhaps you will live longer because of it. 
He did.”

From that day forward, the people of that town brought soup to funerals and sent flowers to the living. 


Ecuador & US: Investor privileges extreme [Article]

Richard Stallman cheers on the move by Ecuador to cancel trade treaty with US. A quote from the article he links to:

Last week 12 Latin American governments gathered in Guayaquil, Ecuador to craft a common response to an increasingly common menace: costly “investor-state” suits in which foreign corporations are dragging sovereign governments to extrajudicial courts to demand taxpayer compensation for health, environmental, and other public interest policies.  

Waxing to life-like perfection – [Article]

Recognise the name Marie Grosholz? Heard of Madame Tussaud?  Laetitia D traces the origins of the wax museums:

a 32-year-old woman undertook the gruesome labor of casting in wax the severed heads of the enemies of the Revolution. The effigies were then paraded on picks in the streets as symbolic sacraments of the people’s victory. The dilligent wax manufacturer’s name was Marie Grosholz, a name she promptly changed after her wedding to become Madame Tussaud. 

The Politics of Play [Article]

In the Politics of Play, Jay Griffiths emphasises the need for risk for children while playing: 

The true opposite of obedience is not disobedience but independence. The true opposite of order is not disorder but freedom. Most profoundly, the true opposite of control is not chaos but self-control

While children must learn to control themselves, what they can never control is luck. They must learn how to live with it, how to dance with chance and mischance. Children recognize life is a huge adventure, and they must accept the dare.